Industrial vibrating filters for filtering impurities from liquids, such as paint, are well known in the art. Such vibrating filters are connectible within a liquid system and intake a processing liquid in an inlet, filter the liquid, and output the filtered liquid through an outlet for the desired application such as painting. The prior art vibrating filters generally comprise a filter element within a filter chamber and a vibrator secured within the inlet or outlet chamber. The vibrator typically comprises a housing, a ball located within the housing, and an air or gas source for causing the ball to orbit rapidly within the housing to vibrate the housing. The vibration of the vibrator is imparted to the vibrating filter housing, and, thus, to the filter element, which allows impurities in the liquid to be filtered more effectively.
A significant problem associated with prior art vibrating filters is that the vibrator vibrates the entire device, as opposed to only vibrating the filter element. This problem is significant for several reasons. To impart a desired level of vibration to the filter element, more energy is required to deliver the desired level of vibration to the filter element when the entire unit is vibrated, in contrast to vibrating only the filter element. Thus, more compressed air or gas must be supplied to the vibrator to provide the increased vibration necessary to vibrate the filter element at the desired level when the entire unit is being vibrated. Further, a larger vibrator unit is also required to deliver the increased vibration necessary to vibrate the entire device. For this reason, prior art vibrating filters use vibrators which are unnecessarily large. Moreover, it is undesirable to vibrate the entire device because the device is more difficult to handle, makes more noise and is subject to higher maintenance costs.
Another problem associated with prior art vibrating filters is that a seal is required between the filter chamber and the outlet chamber. The prior art seals have allowed impurities in the filter chamber to undesirably circumvent the seal and enter the outlet chamber. With respect to industrial painting applications, such ineffective seals cause impurities to mar the painted surface, thereby detracting from the appearance of the painted object.